Day 1--Quito, Ecuador

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2013

Free day in Quito
Night at Quito Sheraton Hotel

Some of the participants, who arrived early, opted to go shopping at the famous Otavalo Market this day, but Iris and I wanted to visit El Quito Park and its botanical gardens, Jardin Botanico. We also decided not to eat breakfast at the pricy hotel buffet, so ordered a fruit and museli breakfast in our room. After eating breakfast and identifying our first bird--two Eared Doves on the roof below our room--we set off, foolishly sans water and snacks.

We walked the couple of blocks to the 6.5-acre park and then walked the park from one end to the other, taking pix of the painted frogs, sculptures, fountains, and people at the entrance, and identifying only Eared Dove, Summer Tanager, Great Thrush, Black Flower-piercer, Black-tailed Trainbearer, and Rufous-collared Sparrow (Internet photo left) along the way. We were to see many "Ruffies" over the course of our tour. They are very attractive sparrows.

Since it was Saturday, there were many families enjoying the park--playing volleyball and soccer, riding bicycles, having picnics, doing group Tai Chi, aerobics, etc. There were also places to rent all sorts of things--bikes, soccer balls, scooters, pedal cars, and boats. At one point, two guys who were renting soccer balls, walked toward us with the extra balls comically tucked under their tees and into the backs of their shorts, making them look like women with huge behinds and breasts. We laughed. I was too late in pulling out the camera so have no photos.

 

We strolled along a shady row of trees that I remembered as being some sort of Eucalyptus, but in the photo below they look to be some sort of cedar.


Iris on the way to the botanical gardens



While in the Orchid house, I took a (very poor) photo of Iris standing under a large leaf (above). I did not realize that I'd see many giant leaves of all types on our birding travels.

After we exited the orchid house, I began to get a dull headache and feel woozy. My feet and ankles were still swollen, we were at high altitude, it was HOT, and neither of us had drunk enough water. Iris asked a passerby where we might find food, and we ended up at a tiny bar tucked into the foliage right around the corner. The two boys running it had no water, but they did make each of us a delicious freshly squeezed pineapple drink. It was incredibly delicious and revived me.

The boys were playing classical music at high volume. An Ecuadorian woman who spoke perfect English stopped at our table under the trees and explained that she had requested such music. She thought the rock music the boys had been playing undignified in the Gardens. Apparently she was hanging about just to ensure compliance. We told her we were glad of her choice and complimented the boys on their choice of music when we left.

That evening we met our guides and all but two of the group over dinner in the Sheraton dining room. The full group consists of 11: Iris McPherson and me, Stillwater, OK; Margaret Kelch & Harvey Medland, Toronto; Susan Marsden, Richmond, NH; Bev McMaster, Ottawa; Lynn Peterson, DeLand, FL; Jim Rundel, Santa Rosa,CA; and Mike Seamans, Seattle, WA; our tour guides Rose Ann Rowlet and Willi Perez. This looks to be a good group.

Rose Ann Rowlett Field Guides founder and tour guide and Willy Perez, FG guide. These two were exceptional birders and worked very hard to find the birds for us. Willy, married to an English woman had just moved to England. Rose Ann was training others in preparation for retirement. She'd been heading up Field Guides since the early70s.
Willy will be remembered for his: "Do you see the light?"(his green laser); "People!People!" when he spotted a bird; "Don't be British" (when participants were too polite to take a turn viewing the bird he had in the scope); and "Oh sugar" (when he'd get a bird in the scope but it would fly off before anyone had a chance to see it). From past experience, he and Rose Ann knew where the birds were to be found and they found them.

We were told to order freely from the menu, that all was covered except alcoholic beverages of our choice. Both Iris and I ordered the salmon salad. Iris's salmon was not cooked and "salad" was a euphemism. There was a small bowl of diced mangoes, pecans, and cranberries on a couple of leaves, and a small piece of artfully arranged salmon in a sauce. No greens. Each time we'd return to the Sheraton, we'd eat dinner in this dining room. We soon learned that the chefs were more concerned with presentation than with palatability.

Rose Ann was very excited to change our schedule a bit. Rather than going to Yanacocha the next day (our first birding day) as planned, she wanted to go to Un Poco del Choco (a little bit of the Choco) to see a Banded Ground-Cuckoo, a Choco speciality that had just been sighted again after many years. Rose Ann had been to see it two days before. It was a life bird for her. The cuckoo was attending army ant swarms on the west slope of the Andes not far from San Miguel de los Banchos in the Mindo cloud forest area. We were all for it. I had seen this bird's picture in the bird plates--a large stunning bird (see Internet photo below)--and had marked it as one that I wanted to see.